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"I won't do it"

"Are you so sure of that?"

"A world without Sebastian"-Simon used the name deliberately-"in it is a better world than one with hi in Simon, a swift tide "Anyway, I couldn't if I wanted to He's dead Vaht to know that, if you know sosoaze on him "You really don't know, do you?" she said "Clary never told you"

Si fed up "Never told me what?"

She chuckled "An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a life for a life To prevent chaos there ht, a life is owed to the Dark as well"

"I have," Simon said slowly and deliberately, "literally no idea what you're talking about And I don't care You villains and your creepy eugenics progra to leave now You're welcoe you to go ahead and try"

She looked at him and chuckled "'Cain rose up,'" she said "You are a bit like him whose Mark you bear He was stubborn, as you are Foolhardy, too"

"He went up against-" Si with you" He turned to leave

"I would not turn your back onin her voice that made him look back at her, where she leaned on Sebastian's coffin "You think you cannot be hurt," she said with a sneer "And indeed I cannot lift a hand against you I am not a fool; I have seen the holy fire of the divine I have no wish to see it turned against ain hat I cannot understand I am a deht think I understand the weaknesses of pride, of lust for power, of desire of the flesh, of greed and vanity and love"

"Love isn't a weakness"

"Oh, isn't it?" she said, and glanced past him, with a look as cold and pointed as an icicle

He turned, not wanting to, knowing he must, and looked behind him

There on the brick as Jace He wore a dark suit and a white shirt Standing in front of hiold-colored dress she had worn to the Ironworks party Her long, wavy red hair had co down around her shoulders She stood very still in the circle of Jace's arms It would almost have looked like a romantic picture if it were not for the fact that in one of his hands, Jace was holding a long and glittering bone-handled knife, and the edge of it was pressed against Clary's throat

Simon stared at Jace in total and absolute shock There was no eht in his eyes He seehtly he inclined his head

"I brought her, Lady Lilith," he said "Just as you asked"

Chapter 17

AND CAIN ROSE UP

Clary had never been so cold

Even when she had crawled out of Lake Lyn, coughing and sputtering its poisonous water onto the shore, she hadn't been this cold Even when she had thought Jace was dead, she hadn't felt this terrible icy paralysis in her heart Then she had burned with rage, rage against her father Now she just felt ice, all the way down to her toes

She had coe building, under the shadow of an unlit chandelier Jace had been carrying her, one ar her head Still dizzy and groggy, she'd buried her head against his neck for ato remember where she was

"What happened?" she had whispered

They had reached the elevator Jace pushed the button, and Clary heard the rattle thatdoard them But where were they?

"You were unconscious," he said

"But how-" She re of her stele on her skin, the wave of darkness that had co with the rune he had drawn on her, the way it had looked and felt She stayed motionless in his arms for a moment, and then said:

"Put me down"

He set her down on her feet, and they looked at each other Only a small space separated them She could have reached out and touched him, but for the first time since she hadthat she was looking at a stranger He looked like Jace, and sounded like Jace when he spoke, and had felt like Jace when she was holding hie and distant, as was the tiny s about his mouth

The elevator doors opened behind hi in the nave of the Institute, saying "I love you" to a closed elevator door The gap yawned behind him now, as black as the mouth of a cave She felt for the stele in her pocket; it was gone

"You knocked ht me here Why?"